Keith Hudson's Musings

Thus far, but no further . . . thank you very much

Young women in the advanced industrialised countries in recent years — though not yet in agrarian societies — have finally gained career equality. Indeed, because women’s intellectual abilities develop naturally some three or four years ahead of men’s, they now out-earn men of the same age in most professions up until the age of between about 20 and 30 years.

During those years as women begin to take time off from their careers to have children, then men between the of ages about 35 to 40 years of age and onwards finally have a chance of catching up and gaining equality of earnings — if not. in many cases, also retaining the superiority that they used to have until recent years.

The above holds true except in professions where there is a high rate of promotion opportunities — where personality-competition is quite as important as intellectual-competition. In those cases then women don’t fare too well. They are not happy with personality-competition, even more so when applied between themselves than when they to apply it against men.

On the other hand, men will act forcefully against competitors whether they are men or women. Thus, women tend to lose out in gaining leadership positions in politics, say, or in senior management positions in large businesses. There has been a vigorous campaign in recent years to place more women in politics and in senior positions in multinational corporations.

Beyond anecdotal level it’s difficult to nail this topic down. Some recent research by prof Sun Young Lee at University College of London, and published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology tends to confirm it. Eight hundred volunteers carried out a series of tasks with same-gender groups and otherwise, and found that female participants would rather complete with male o[-workers.

Why should women confine themselves to just one career in life as men do? They have the chance of a far more skilful and satisfying career, running successively or in parallel that men can never remotely experience.